Improvement in self-feeding tanks for railways



NITED STATES ATENT FFICEJ.

BENJAMIN D. MOODY, OF DARKSVILLE, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO JAMES M. FULLERTON AND GEORGE V. SNYDER, OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.

IMPROVEMENTIN SELF FEEDING TANKS F OR RAILWAYS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 140,29d, dated June 24, 1873; application filed April 16, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN D. MOODY, of Darksville, Randolph county, Missouri, have invented a certain Improvement in Apparatus for Supplying Water to Locomotive Tenders, of which the following is a specification:

My improvement consists in providing the railway track with a depressible portion supported on a plunger of considerable area, which is arranged to descend in the tank by the weight of the engine and tender, so as to cause the water to flow from the tank through the stand-spout into the tender. The plunger is attached to the ends of weighted levers, by which it is raised to allow an inflow of water from the supply-tank after the passage of the train.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating my improvement. Fig. 2 is .a cross-section of the same.

A is a tank, connected with the supply-reservoir by a pipe, B, furnished with a checkvalve, b, to prevent the backward flow of the water from the tank by the descent of the plunger or platform 0 as it receives the weight of the engine, 820. The plunger 0 is connected to the sides of the tank by a diaphragm, c, of some flexible and impervious material, such as India-rubbercloth or leather, so that as the plunger rises and falls there will be no entrance of air or escape of water around its margin. 1) is a frame erected on the plunger and supporting the beams or bars E, upon which the road-rails e are secured. Jointed atfto the ends of the bars E are beams or bars F, forming the connection between the beams E and the fixed railway track on each side of the apparatus. The hinges f may be constructed with an elongated pin-hole in one member or part of the hinge, to allow sufficient end movement in the hinge to compensate for expansion and contraction of the beams F and E-under changes of temperature, and by reason of the rising and falling of the platform. G are standards attached to the tank, and giving fulcrum-bearing at their upper ends to the levers H, connected at their inner ends by links h to the frame D and extending outward to support a counter-balance, I, upon each side, loaded with sufficient Weight to re-elevate the plunger, &c., after the train has run over it. The platform or plunger U may be guided in a vertical course in rising and falling by any suitable contrivance. The guiding device shown has anti-friction rollers j in the fixed frame J, the said rollers having bearing on the sides of uprights d of the frame I). The water flows from the tank A (on descent of the plunger) through a vertical pipe, L, provided with a valve or stop-cock, l, and flexible spout M. r

The operation is as follows: The locomotivetender is brought to a stand on the plunger 0, and the cock I opened; the water then flows through the pipe L M into the watertank of the tender. When the latter is supplied, the cock is closed. When the train has passed over the plunger, the latter is raised by the weighted levers H, and the apparatus is in a condition to yield another supply of water.

' I claim- The herein-described apparatus for supplying water to locomotive-tenders, consisting-of the tank A connected with the supply-reset voir by the pipe B provided with the checkvalve 1), the plunger 0 connected to the sides of the tank by the flexible diaphragm and supporting the frame D carrying the rail-bars E, the hinged bars F connecting the beams E with the fixed track, the weighted levers H, and the pipe L M, all constructed, arranged, and operating substantially as shown and described. v

BENJAMIN D. MOODY.

Witnesses SAML KNIGHT, ROBERT BURNS. 

